Ten greatest monster songs that are not 'Monster Mash'

So October (or Monstober, if you're into annoying nicknames) is the month of monsters, when we take an evening to support kids in dressing up like their favorite killing beast and threaten neighbors for candy, and adults in dressing like sexualized versions of traditional nightmares at parties. So it makes sense that our music would do the same: take monsters head-on and dismiss the darkness by wearing its shroud. Or, you know, making some quick cash on holiday tie-ins. Either way.

Of course, "Monster Mash" is the one that first pops to mind. So in the interest of fairness, and in not burying that earworm deep in your auditory canals, we'll start by stipulating that one and then focus on ten that aren't so obvious.

10. "Dracula's Wedding," OutKast

From the Grammy-winning double-solo Outkast effort Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (which also spawned "Hey Ya!" and "The Way You Move") comes this song celebrating everyone's favorite vampire, who becomes a rapper and is terrified when he finds his one true love. Or something like that. Really, it's best not to question most of the songs on this list.

9. "Frankenstein," New York Dolls

There's something fitting about the proto-punk New York Dolls singing about Frankenstein, who is basically a giant doll himself. So you'd think that David Johansen and company would have more to say about Frankie in this song from their 1973 album Seven Day Weekend. All the lyrics really refer to are his shoes being too big and his jacket too small. And that last question ("Did you think that you could make it with Frankenstein?") really makes you wonder if Mel Brooks listened to this when writing Young Frankenstein. Oh, sweet mystery of life, at last I've found you!

8. "Werewolves of London," Warren Zevon

From Zevon's most successful album, 1978's Excitable Boy, comes "Werewolves of London," which focuses on what must be the hippest werewolf that ever bayed at the moon. After all, this is a dude that drinks pina coladas at Trader Vic's...and his hair was perfect. Maybe not the scariest lycanthrope ever, but he'll still rip your lungs out, Jim.

7. "Scary Monsters," David Bowie

David Bowie is something of a scary monster himself. It's just an act, of course, but he pulled it off for decades. This song, from his eponymous 1980 album, is ostensibly about a woman's descent into madness, but Bowie fans know that it's really just one more eyeshadow-and-blush opportunity for the Thin White Duke.

6. "Furry Happy Monsters," REM/Sesame Street

The original "Shiny Happy People," from REM's 1991 album Out of Time, was something of a mixed bag. It was a hit, but Michael Stipe is on record as disliking it. It was, at one time, slated to be the theme song for Friends, but was also named as one of Blender magazine's 50 Worst Songs Ever. Whatever you think of the original, though, you have to give props to the monster cover from Sesame Street. It's just genius. The scariest thing about this song is that I'm still seriously attracted to Kate Pierson, even as a Muppet.